"What America can learn from Switzerland is that the best way to
reduce gun misuse is to promote responsible gun ownership."

By David B. Kopel and Stephen D'Andrilli
(American Rifleman, February 1990)

In the right to bear arms debate, pro-gun Americans point to Switzerland,
where almost every adult male is legally required to possess a gun. One
of the few nations with a higher per capita rate of gun ownership than
the United States, Switzerland has virtually no gun crime. Therefore, argue
the pro-gunners, America doesn't need gun control.

Yet Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), in its brochure "Handgun Facts,"
points to Switzerland as one of the advanced nations with strict handgun
laws." The brochure states that all guns are registered, and handgun purchases
require a background check and a permit. Gun crime in Switzerland is virtually
non-existent. Therefore, concludes Handgun Control, America needs strict
gun control.

Who's right? As usual, Handgun Control is wrong, but that doesn't
necessarily make the pro-gun side right. Gun ownership in Switzerland defies
the simple categories of the American gun debate.

Like America, Switzerland won its independence in a revolutionary
war fought by an armed citizenry. In 1291, several cantons (states) began
a war of national liberation against Austria's Hapsburg Empire. In legend,
the revolution was precipitated by William Tell, although there is no definitive
proof of his existence.

Over the next century, the Swiss militia liberated most Switzerland
from the Austrians. The ordinary citizens who composed the militia used
the deadliest assault weapons the time, swords and bows. Crucial to the
Swiss victory was the motivation of the free Swiss troops.

From the very first years of Swiss independence, the Swiss were commanded
to keep and bear arms. After 1515. Switzerland adopted a policy of armed
neutrality. For the next four centuries, the great empires of Europe rose
and fell, swallowing many weaker countries. Russia and France both invaded,
and the Habsburgs and later the Austro Hungarian Empire remained special
threats. But Switzerland almost always retained its independence. The Swiss
policy was Prévention de Ia guerre par Ia volonté
de se défendre During World War I, both France and Germany considered
invading Switzerland to attack each other's flank. In World War II, Hitler
wanted the Swiss gold reserves and needed free communications and transit
through Switzerland to supply Axis forces in the
Mediterranean. But when military planners looked at Switzerland's
well-armed citizenry, mountainous terrain, and civil defence fortifications,
Switzerland lost its appeal as an invasion target. While two World Wars
raged, Switzerland enjoyed a secure peace.

At home, the "Swiss Confederation" developed only a weak central
government, leaving most authority in the hands of the cantons or lower
levels of government. The tradition of local autonomy helped keep Switzerland
from experiencing the bitter civil wars between Catholics and Protestants
that devastated Germany, France and England.

In 1847-48, liberals throughout Europe revolted against aristocratic
rule. Only in Switzerland did they succeed, taking control of the whole
nation following a brief conflict called the Sonderbrund War. (Total casualties
were only 128.) Civil rights were firmly guaranteed, and all vestiges of
feudalism were abolished.

Despite the hopes of German reformers, the Swiss did not send their
people's army into Germany in 1848 to assist popular revolution there.
When the German revolution failed, autocratic Prussia considered invading
Switzerland, but decided the task was impossible.

As one historian summarises: "Switzerland was created in battle,
reached its present dimensions by conquest and defended its existence by
armed neutrality thereafter." The experience of Swiss history has made
national independence and power virtually synonymous with an armed citizenry.

Today, military service for Swiss males is universal. At about age
20, every Swiss male goes through 118 consecutive days of recruit training
in the Rekrutenschule. This training may be a young man's first encounter
with his countrymen who speak different languages. (Switzerland has four
official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch.)

Even before required training begins, young men and women may take
optional courses with the Swiss army's M57 assault rifle. They keep that
gun at home for three months and receive six half-day training sessions.

From age 21 to 32, a Swiss man serves as a "frontline" troop in the
Auszug, and devotes three weeks a year (in eight of the 12 years) to continued
training. From age 33 to 42, he serves in the Landwehr (like America's
National Guard); every few years, he reports for two-week training periods.
Finally, from ages 43, to 50, he serves in the Landsturm; in this period,
he only spends 13 days total in "home guard courses."

Over a soldier's career he also spends scattered days on mandatory
equipment inspections and required target practice. Thus, in a 30-year
mandatory military career, a Swiss man only spends about one year in direct
military service. Following discharge from the regular army, men serve
on reserve status until age 50 (55 for officers).

By the Federal Constitution of 1874, military servicemen are given
their first equipment, clothing and arms. After the first training period,
conscripts must keep gun, ammunition and equipment an ihrem Wohnort ("in
their homes") until the end of their term of service.

Today, enlisted men are issued M57 automatic assault rifles and officers
are given pistol, Each reservist is issued 24 rounds of ammunition in sealed
packs for emergency use. (Contrary to Handgun Control's claim that "all
ammunition must be accounted for," the emergency ammunition is the only
ammo that requires accounting.)

After discharge from service, the man is given a bolt rifle free
from registration or obligation. Starting in the 1994, the government will
give ex-reservists assault rifles. Officers carry pistols rather than rifles
and are given their pistols the end of their service.

When the government adopts a new infantry rifle, it sells the old
ones to the public.

Reservists are encouraged to buy military ammunition (7.5 and 5.6mm-5.56
mm in other countries-for rifles and 9 and 7.65 mm Luger for pistols, which
is sold at cost by the government, for target practice Non-military ammunition
for long-gun hunting and .22 Long Rifle (LR) ammo are not subsidised, but
are subiect to no sales controls. Non-military non-hunting ammunition more
powerful than .22 LR (such as .38 Spl.) is registered at the time of sale.

Swiss military ammo must be registered if bought at a private store,
but need not be registered if bought at a range The nation's 3,000 shooting
ranges sell the overwhelming majority of ammunition. Technically, ammunition
bought at the range must be used at the range, but the rule is barely known
and almost never obeyed.

The army sells a variety of machine guns, submachine guns, anti-tank
weapons, anti-aircraft guns, howitzers and cannons. Purchasers of these
weapons require an easily obtained cantonal license, and the weapons are
registered, In a nation of six million people, there are at least two million
guns, including 600,00 fully automatic assault rifles, half a million pistols,
and numerous machine guns. Virtually every home has a gun.

Besides subsidised military surplus, the Swiss can buy other firearms
easily too. While long guns require no special purchase procedures,
handguns are sold only to those with a Waffenerwerbsschien (purchase certificate)
issued by a cantonal authority. A certificate is issued to every applicant
over 18 who is not a criminal or mentally infirm.

There are no restrictions on the carrying of long guns. About half
the cantons have strict permit procedures for carrying handguns, and the
other half have no rules at all There is no discernible difference in the
crime rate between the cantons as a result of the different policies.

Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Swiss gun lobby, semi-automatic
rifles require no purchase permit and are not registered by the government.
Thus, the only long guns registered by the government are full automatics.
(Three cantons do require collectors of more than 10 guns to register.)

Gun sales from one individual to another are regulated in five cantons
and completely uncontrolled in all the rest.

Retail gun dealers do keep records of over-the-counter gun transactions;
transactions are not reported to or collected by the government. (This
is also the policy in the U.S. during those periods the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms feels like obeying the law.) In Switzerland, purchases
from dealers of hunting long guns and of smallbore rifles are not even
recorded by the dealer. In other words, the dealer would not record the
sale of a .30-06 hunting rifle, but would record the sale of a .30-06 Garand.

Thus, Handgun Control's assertion that all Swiss guns are registered
is just plain wrong, and its claim that "Switzerland and Israel strictly
control handgun availability" is more than a little inaccurate.

Anybody, including this author, can make mistakes about the complexities
about foreign gun laws. Nevertheless, even the most careless authors ought
to do better than Handgun Control's brochure "Handgun Facts," in which
almost every "fact" about Switzerland is wrong.

But Handgun Control's misstatements are no worse than those contained
in a highly biased Library of Congress book Gun Control Laws in Foreign
Countries (which tax dollars paid for). That book claims that in Switzerland
"the policy is not to provide automatic guns and other dangerous weapons
to the general population"-an utter untruth, at least if one considers
adults to be part of "the general population." The book also asserts that
"the sale of handguns to individuals is restricted and reflects a clear
Swiss government policy of keeping this strict control." Yet the only individuals
who are "restricted" from buying handguns are children, the insane and
ex-criminals.

If ever a nation had "a well-regulated militia," it is Switzerland.
Nineteenth-century economist Adam Smith thought Switzerland the only place
where the whole body of the people had successfully been drilled in militia
skills.

Indeed, the militia is virtually synonymous with the nation. "The
Swiss do not have an army, they are the army, says one government publication.
Fully deployed, the Swiss army has 15.2 men per square kilometre; in contrast,
the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. have only .2 soldiers per square kilometre. Switzerland
is 76 times denser with soldiers than either superpower. Indeed, only Israel
has more army per square kilometre.

Switzerland is also the only Western nation to provide shelters fully
stocked with food and enough supplies to last a year for all its citizens
in case of war. The banks and supermarkets subsidise much of the stockpiling.
The banks also have plans to move their gold into the mountainous center
of Switzerland in case of invasion.

The nation is ready to mobilise on a moment's notice. Said one Swiss
citizen-soldier, "If we start in the morning, we would be mobilised by
late afternoon. That is why the gun is at home, the ammunition is at home.
The younger people all have automatic rifles. They are ready to fight."
Citizen-soldiers on their way to mobilisation points may flag down and
commandeer passing automobiles.

Since 1291, when the landsgemeinden (people's assemblies) formed
circles in the village squares, and only men carrying swords could vote,
weapons have been the mark of citizenship. As a Military Department spokesman
said, "It is an old Swiss tradition that only an armed man can have political
rights." This policy is based on the understanding that only those who
bear the burden of keeping Switzerland free are entitled to fully enjoy
the benefits of freedom.

In 1977, the Münchenstein Initiative proposed allowing citizens
to choose social or hospital work over military duty. It was rejected at
the polls, and in both houses of parliament (the Bundesversarnmlung's Nationalrat
and Ständerat). There are provisions for conscientious objectors,
but this group only numbers .2% of conscripts.

In 1978, Switzerland refused to ratify a Council of Europe Convention
on Control of Firearms. Since then, Switzerland has been pressured by other
European governments, which charge that it is a source for terrorist weapons.
As a result, in 1982 the central government proposed a law barring foreigners
in Switzerland from buying guns they could not buy in their own countries
and also requiring that Swiss citizens obtain a license to buy any gun,
rather than just handguns.

Outraged Swiss gun owners formed a group called "Pro Tell," named
after national hero William Tell. In 1983, the Federal Council (the executive
cabinet) abandoned the restrictive proposal because "the opposition was
too heavy" and suggested that the cantons regulate the matter. A few months
earlier, the Cantonal Council of Freiburg had already enacted such a law
by a one-vote margin. A popular referendum overturned the law the next
year, by a 60%-40% vote.

Whatever the effect of Swiss guns abroad, they are not even a trivial
crime problem domestically. Despite all the guns, the murder rate is a
small fraction of the American rate, and is less than the rate in Canada
or England, which strictly control guns, or in Japan, which virtually prohibits
them. The gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept.

The suicide rate, though, is almost double the American rate. Guns
are used in about one-fifth of all Swiss suicides compared to three-fifths
of American and one-third of Canadian suicides.

It is not Switzerland's cultural makeup, or its gun policies per
se, that explain that low crime rate. Rather, it is the emphasis on community
duty, of which gun ownership is the most important part, that best explains
low crime rate.

In Cities With Little Crime, author Marshall Clinard contrasts the
low crime rate in Switzerland with the higher rate in Sweden, where gun
control is more extensive. The higher Swedish rate is all the more surprising
in view of Sweden's much lower population density and its ethnic homogeneity.
One of the reasons for the low crime rate, says Clinard, is that Swiss
cities grew relatively slowly. Most families live for generations in the
same area. Therefore, large, heterogeneous cities with slum cultures never
developed.

Proud to have the weakest central government in the West, Switzerlan
is governed mainly by its 3,095 Einwohrnergemeinde (communes, sub-states
of a canton). Several cantons still make their laws by the traditional
Landsgemeinden system, whereby all eligible voters assemble in annual outdoor
meetings.

Unlike the rest of Europe, the police force is decentralised. Judges
and jurors are popularly elected. With less mobility, and more deeply developed
community ties, there is less crime.

Most democratic nations impose long prison terms more frequently
than does America, but Switzerland does not. For all crimes except murder,
the Swiss rarely inflict a prison term of more than a year; most serious
offenders receive suspended sentences. As in Japan, the focus of the criminal
justice system is on the reintegration of the offender into the community,
rather than punishment.

As for the non-criminal Swiss, the saying is that everyone is his
own policeman. Foreign visitors are surprised to see Swiss pedestrians
always waiting at traffic lights, even when there is no traffic. The mass
transit systems successfully depends on voluntary payment.

Clinard infers that strong central governments weaken citizen initiative
and individual responsibility. He concludes: Communities or
cities that wish to prevent crime should encourage greater political decentralisation
by developing small government units and encouraging citizen responsibility
for obedience to the law and crime control."

In Nations Not Obsessed With Crime, Freda Adler comes to many of
the same conclusions as Clinard. She, too, emphasises the communal system
of government-in which all laws are enacted by popular vote-and the stability
of residential patterns.

Most Swiss still live in traditional patriarchal families. In fact,
Switzerland has the lowest percentage of working mothers of any European
country. While America was debating the Equal Rights Amendment, Switzerland
was wondering whether women should be allowed to vote. (The long delay
in female suffrage may have something to do with the equation of civil
rights and militia service.)

Schools are strict, and teenagers have less freedom than in most
of the rest of Europe. Studies shows that Swiss teenagers, unlike teenagers
in other countries, feel closer to their parents than to their fellow teenagers.
Communications between the generations are open.

Among the factors contributing to the inter-generational harmony
is military service, which provides an opportunity for all groups of males
to interact. Adults and youth share many sports, such as skiing and swimming.

Target shooting is another important shared pastime, with community
awards and team trophies often displayed in restaurants and taverns. At
the annual Feldschiessen weekend, more than 200,000 Swiss attend national
marksmanship competitions.

In the home, writes John McPhee, "while a father cleans his rifle
at the kitchen table his son is watching, and 'the boy gets close to the
weapon' ". Marshall Clinard explains that because army weapons must be
kept in the home much activity associated with the proper care of weapons,
target practice, or conversations about military activities become common
in the family. All of this, together with the other varied activities carried
out in Switzerland across age lines, has served to inhibit the age separation,
alienation, and growth of a separate youth culture that has increasingly
become characteristic of the United States, Sweden, and many other highly
developed countries. Although these factors represent only one aspect of
a total Swiss way of life, they play no small part in the low crime rate
and the crime trend."

Close analysis of Swiss gun laws also shows how silly it is for Handgun
Control to point to Switzerland as a model. If-as Handgun Control claims-Switzerland's
lenient licensing system is the reason Switzerland has so little handgun
crime, then Handgun Control ought to commit itself to reform of several
American laws.

First of all, Handgun Control should oppose the gun prohibition laws
in Washington, D.C., and other cities-since Switzerland proves that lenient
licensing is all that is needed to stop gun crime.

Second, Handgun Control should work to repeal laws which prohibit
Americans from owning howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, and other military
weapons. Switzerland allows ownership of these weapons by anyone who can
meet the simple requirements for a handgun license. And thanks to the "howitzer
licensing" system there is no howitzer crime in Switzerland. Since Swiss-style handgun licensing is the
main reason Switzerland has no handgun crime (claims Handgun Control),
a Swiss-style system of howitzer licensing would also be a good idea for
America.

Lastly, Handgun Control should reverse its policy, and work for repeal
of America's ban on the possession of machine guns manufactured after 1986.
Handgun Control should push America to adopt the Swiss policy: having the
government sell machine guns at discount prices to anyone with an easily
obtained permit.

It is not likely, though, that Handgun Control will follow the logic
of its advertising, and work to let Americans own licensed machine guns
and howitzers. But until Handgun Control does so, it should stop talking
about what a good handgun licensing system Switzerland has.

If Handgun Control should stop its rhetoric about Switzerland, what
should pro-gun Americans do? They can talk about Switzerland, but they
cannot expect to win the American gun argument with the Swiss example.

Analysis of Switzerland does demolish the simplistic notion "more
guns, more gun crime." More important than the number of guns is their
cultural context. In Switzerland, guns are an important element of a cohesive
social structure that keeps crime low.

While Switzerland is clear proof that guns are not in themselves
"daemons" (as one Denver priest recently claimed), Switzerland does not
by itself prove the ease against gun control in America. Indeed, author
Clinard argues that strict gun controls are necessary in the U.S.

Clinard's argument cannot be dismissed out of hand. After all, few
readers of this magazine would want America to adopt the lenient criminal
sentencing practices of Switzerland. Opponents of lenient sentencing would
argue, correctly, that America does not have the stable, integrated community
structures of Switzerland. Thus, the American government must take a more coercive, authoritarian role
in controlling prisoners, to make up for the lack of community controls.

The same point might be made about guns. Although guns are more available
to the Swiss, Swiss gun culture is more authoritarian than America's. Gun
ownership is a mandatory community duty, not a matter of individual free
choice. In Switzerland, defence of the nation is not a job for professional
soldiers or for people who join the army to learn technical skills for
civilian jobs. Defence of the nation is the responsibility of every male
citizen.

Thus, American gun owners must win the gun control argument based
on conditions in America, not conditions in Switzerland. The implicit argument
of Clinard (and of most American gun controllers) is that while the Swiss
may be responsible enough to own even the deadliest guns, Americans are
not.

Before rejecting this argument, American gun owners might wonder
if an unmanned American mass transit system could count on payment by the
honour code. Further, America obviously has a large criminal class of gun
abusers, and Switzerland does not.

If strict gun control could actually disarm that criminal element
in America, there might be an argument for gun control. But as Josh Sugarmann,
former communications director for the National Coalition to Ban Handguns
(NCBH), wrote in The Washington Monthly: "handgun controls do little to
stop criminals from obtaining handguns."

Sugarmann and NCBH favour gun control not to disarm criminals, but
because they believe that non-criminal Americans cannot be trusted with
handguns. The coalition's political affairs director, Eric Ellman, has
said that "the majority of gun owners are not responsible." Yet a look
at the facts shows that more than 99% of American citizens
who are not professional felons are just as suited for gun
ownership as any Swiss militiaman.

Ordinary American citizens use guns competently. Every 48 seconds,
someone uses a handgun to defend himself against a crime (according to
Florida State University's Gary Kleck, using data collected by liberal
pollster Peter Hart in a poll paid for by the anti-gun lobby).

Regular American citizens do not shoot each other in moments of passion;
the vast majority of such shootings are perpetrated by thugs with a record
of violence and substance abuse.

And contrary to the claims of the anti-gun lobby, Americans are not
so careless that they cannot be trusted with potentially dangerous objects
like guns. Gun accidents account for less than 2% of the nation's 92,000
accidental deaths annually.

Suicides have little to do with gun availability. Japan has no guns,
while Switzerland is deluged with every gun in the book, and both nations
have the same suicide rate.

Of course the more that U.S. governments can do to make gun use in
America even more responsible, the better. Switzerland shows how successful
governments can be in promoting responsible gun use.

Elementary schools in America should have gun safety classes which
teach children never to touch a gun unless a parent is present, and they
should be taught to tell an adult if they see an unattended gun. The NRA
actively promotes this idea, and the National Association of Chiefs of
Police endorses it. But Handgun Control opposes this
reasonable, sensible safety measure. Has HCI gone off the deep end?

High schools and colleges wishing to offer target shooting as a sport
should be allowed to do so. Unlike football or swimming, scholastic target
shooting has never resulted in a fatality. The anti-gun groups oppose the
sensible step of allowing the schools to offer students the safest sport
ever invented. Have they gone off the deep end'? Finally, local governments
should enact reasonable zoning laws, which allow the construction of indoor
shooting ranges (properly ventilated and sound insulated) in urban areas.
In some cases, governments should subsidise the building of ranges. At
target ranges, Americans can take lessons in gun responsibility, and practice
safe gun handling skills. As you might expect, the anti-gunners
oppose this simple safety measure too. They've gone off the deep end.

What have we learned from Switzerland?' Guns in themselves are not
a cause of gun crime; if they were, everyone in Switzerland would long
ago have been shot in a domestic quarrel.

Cultural conditions, not gun laws, are the most important factors
in a nation's crime rate. Young adults in Washington, D.C., are subject
to strict gun control, but no social control, and they commit a staggering
amount of armed crime. Young adults in Zurich are subject to minimal gun
control, but strict social control, and they commit
almost no crime.

America-with its traditions of individual liberty-cannot import Switzerland's
culture of social control. Teenagers, women, and almost everyone else have
more freedom in America than in Switzerland.

What America can learn from Switzerland is that the best way to reduce
gun misuse is to promote responsible gun ownership. While America cannot
adopt the Swiss model, America can foster responsible gun ownership along
more individualistic, American lines. Firearms safety classes in elementary
schools, optional marksmanship classes in high schools and colleges, and
the widespread availability of adult safety training at licensed shooting
ranges are some of the ways that America can make its tradition of responsible
gun use even stronger.